1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

The 1999 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 11, 1999, and ended with the championship game on March 29 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. A total of 63 games were played. This year's Final Four was the first—and so far, only—to be held in a baseball-specific facility, as Tropicana Field is home to the Tampa Bay Rays (then known as the Devil Rays).

The Final Four consisted of Connecticut, making their first ever Final Four appearance; Ohio State, making their ninth Final Four appearance and first since 1968; Michigan State, making their third Final Four appearance and first since their 1979 national championship; and Duke, the overall number one seed and making their first Final Four appearance since losing the national championship game in 1994.

In the national championship game, Connecticut defeated Duke 77-74 to win their first ever national championship, snapping Duke's 32-game winning streak, and scoring the biggest point-spread upset in Championship Game history. Duke nonetheless tied the record for most games won during a single season, with 37, which they co-held until Kentucky's 38-win season in 2011–12. The 2007–08 Memphis team actually broke this record first, but the team was later forced to forfeit their entire season due to eligibility issues surrounding the team.

Richard "Rip" Hamilton of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. This was a significant victory for the program, as it cemented Connecticut's reputation as a true basketball power after decades of barely missing the Final Four.

This tournament is also historically notable as the coming-out party for Gonzaga as a rising mid-major power. The Bulldogs became the nation's basketball darlings during a run to the West Regional final in which they defeated three major-conference powers, including 1998 Final Four participant Stanford, and took UConn literally to the last minute before losing. Gonzaga has made every NCAA tournament since then, and is now generally considered to be a high-major program despite its mid-major conference affiliation.

Due to violations committed by Ohio State head coach Jim O'Brien, the Buckeyes were forced to vacate their appearance in the 1999 Final Four.^[1]

Locations

Boston

Charlotte

Indianapolis

Orlando

Milwaukee

New Orleans

Denver

Seattle

1999 first and second rounds

Phoenix

St. Louis

Knoxville

E. Rutherford

St. Petersburg

1999 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

First and second rounds

March 11 and 13

KeyArena, Seattle (Host: University of Washington)

McNichols Sports Arena, Denver

Orlando Arena, Orlando, Florida

RCA Dome, Indianapolis

March 12 and 14

Bradley Center, Milwaukee

Charlotte Coliseum, Charlotte, North Carolina (Host: University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

FleetCenter, Boston (Host: Boston College)

Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans (Host: Tulane University)

Regionals

March 18 and 20

South Regional, Thompson–Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee (Host: University of Tennessee)

West Regional, America West Arena, Phoenix, Arizona (Host: Arizona State University)

March 19 and 21

East Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey

Midwest Regional, Trans World Dome, St. Louis, Missouri

Final Four

March 27 and 29

Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida

Teams

Bids by conference

Bracket

East Regional – East Rutherford, New Jersey

Regional Final summary

Midwest Regional – St. Louis, Missouri

Regional Final summary

South Regional – Knoxville, Tennessee

Regional Final summary

West Regional – Phoenix, Arizona

Regional Final summary

Final Four

St. Petersburg, Florida

Game summaries

Final Four

National Championship

Announcers

• Jim Nantz and Billy Packer – First & Second Round at New Orleans; Midwest Regional at St. Louis; Final Four at St. Petersburg, Florida
• Sean McDonough and Bill Raftery – First & Second Round at Indianapolis; South Regional at Knoxville, Tennessee
• Verne Lundquist and Al McGuire – First & Second Round at Charlotte, North Carolina; East Regional at East Rutherford, New Jersey
• Gus Johnson and Dan Bonner – First & Second Round at Orlando, Florida; West Regional at Phoenix, Arizona
• Tim Brando and James Worthy – First & Second Round at Milwaukee
• Kevin Harlan and Jon Sundvold – First & Second Round at Seattle
• Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel – First & Second Round at Denver
• Craig Bolerjack and Rolando Blackman – First & Second Round at Boston

Additional notes

• Despite their loss in the finals to Connecticut, the 1998–1999 Duke team won 37 games.^[2] This tied them with Duke's 1985–86 team, UNLV's 1986–87 squad, and later, Illinois' 2004–05 team and Kansas's 2007–08 team, for the most wins in a season, until their record was broken by the 38-win Memphis team in 2007–08. However, as the NCAA vacated Memphis' 2007–2008 season due to the ineligibility of Derrick Rose, they reclaimed the 37-win record. The mark would once again be raised to 38 wins after Kentucky's dominant title run in 2012. Interestingly, only one of the first 5 teams to be the winningest single-season teams won a national championship; UNLV's squad lost in the national semifinal to Indiana, and the other teams lost in the finals, to Louisville, UConn, and North Carolina, while Kansas defeated Memphis in the 2008 national championship game.
• Connecticut's victory in the finals marks the biggest upset in Championship Game history in the NCAA Tournament, as they were 9.5-point underdogs in the contest despite having compiled a 33-2 record going into the Championship game, including a 14-2 record in the tough Big East Conference. In fact, Connecticut had spent more weeks as the number 1 team in the country, according to the AP Top 25 Poll, than had Duke. The previous record was held by Villanova, who defeated Georgetown as 9-point underdogs in 1985.^[3]
• The 1999 Final Four would be the last time Tropicana Field would host NCAA tournament games. For Duke, they had 2 straight promising seasons end on the Tropicana Field floor, with a 86-84 loss to Kentucky in the 1998 South Regional final, and then the 1999 National Championship game.

Notes